Re-thinking instructional strategies for enhancing gender equity in learning primary science: let’s try cooperative small group instructional mode

The study investigated the effect of cooperative small group instructional mode on the cognitive achievement of boys and girls in primary science. Eighty-two pupils (41 girls and 41 boys) were drawn from 2 randomly selected primary schools and from 2 intact primary 5 classes in Uyo Local Government Education Authority. The subjects were exposed to 5 weeks of instruction in selected science concepts from primary 5 curriculum module. Two modes of instruction used were the cooperative small group and the whole class instructional modes. Instrument for collecting the data was the Primary Science Achieve ment Test (PSAT). Data analysis involved the use of t-test statistic. Results revealed no statistically significant difference in the achievement of boys and girls in primary science. The paper claims that cooperative small group instructional mode could remove gender bias in female pupils’ achievement in science.Keywords: cooperative small group instruction, gender bias in achievement, science achievemen

The language barrier education in Africa: The challenge of learning and teaching mathematics in a second language

The issues relating to language of instruction, mathematical language and interaction with mathematics education have remained unresolved. The interaction between these variables have attracted research understandings in recent years. This paper reports a study of the level of understanding of mathematical terms and vocabularies and the relationship with students’ achievement in mathematics results show that students did not understand the mathematical terms and expressions of the contents of mathematics tested. Although students’ achievement was poor and positively related to exposure, the relationship between mathematical language ability and achievement was higher while a call was made to teachers to be aware of the linguistic difficulties of their students, it was recommended that mathematical language be built into language lesson and conversely, language be taught in mathematics lessons